A PAIR OF TAWNY'S

 I'd blogged in the spring about a Tawny owl that had started roosting in a box that I had put up near my home. A couple of weeks ago I photographed it again peering out of the box but it wasn't until a close inspection of that picture that I noticed there were two Owls perched at the entrance.

if you look closely you can see two birds.

Well the next couple of weeks I would periodically check if they were there but no show from the birds. One day I could hear a racket from some birds alarm calling from near where the box was situated so I grabbed my camera to take a look and they were there. I snuck around to a vantage point where I could see the front of the owl box and I could clearly see both male and female Tawny's snuggled together at the entrance hole.

male and female tawny's

That's great news and should mean that they'll start breeding in that box in the next couple of months.

SOME LANZEROTE WADERS

 Went on a weeks holiday to Lanzarote in October with the Wife for a bit of autumn sunshine. We love walking on the beach where I noticed on some rocky little outcrops some wading birds. I had taken my binoculars and the wife had taken her Canon bridge camera so the next day I got up early and ventured down there armed with both.

There was a nice selection of waders with Sanderlings being the first I managed to photograph.

sanderling

There was also Turnstone present another coastal wader.

turnstone

To finish off this small group of coastal waders there were also Ring Plovers on the beach.

ring plover

I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted this Whimbrel amongst the waders.

whimbrel

I'd never been so close to waders before the whimbrel even started to walk up the beach about ten yards from me, you wouldn't get within a hundred yards of them without a hide in the UK.

To finish my morning off I got a couple of snaps of this Yellow Legged Gull.

yellow legged gull

We both had a lovely holiday in Lanzarote and seeing them waders so close was the icing on the cake.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I'll catch you on the next one.

AUTUMN ARRIVALS

Back at the tail end of October we had our annual visit from our winter thrushes the Redwing and Fieldfare. This years berry crop was very good so with some very patient waiting in my mobile hide "my car", I managed a couple of decent images of the birds.

the redwing

the fieldfare

Also trying to get their share of the Berry's were the Mistle thrush and Blackbirds.

mistle thrush

female blackbird

On a different note here's a pic I took at the end of September of a female Pied Flycatcher that must have been on passage and the first one I'd seen at the farm.

female pied flycatcher

Was also nice to get a couple of images of some long tailed tits that had ventured onto my feeders, I don't get to photograph these handsome little birds to often so it was good to see them.

long tailed tit

That's it for this one. It's great to see the winter thrushes back and that Pied Flycatcher was a nice surprise, until the next time cheers for calling in.